“I'd have presumed Lady Belle would have told you who I was. Considering…”
“Considering what?” she asked as they reached the dining room.
For a fleeting moment, he nearly told her about her aunt's heinous plan, but when they entered the room, they saw the old woman standing before them, leaning on her cane.
“Considering that it is rather uncouth to have a brutish Scotsman roaming about the castle,” Belle interjected.
Hope's hand fell away from his arm, and he refused to acknowledge his regret at her release. The old woman winked at him in an infuriatingly knowing way, which only made him scowl.
He would not be managed.
“Considering your aunt—”
“—is more than ready to start supper,” Lady Belle said, cutting him off as Faith and Grace came around from behind him. “Come. Hope, you’ll sit to my right, and Grace can sit next to you. Graham? On my left, as with you, Faith.”
All three sisters went towards their seats as Belle lifted her cane and pointed to the portrait of Graham's great-grandfather that hung on the wall behind them. “Do you see that painting, my dears?”
The ladies swung around while Graham stared at Belle. So, she hadn’t told Hope anything about her matchmaking idea. Curious that she seemed to intend to hide it from her niece after being so frank with him.
“Is that who lived here before you, Aunt Belle?” Hope asked, her eyes scanning the painting.
“It is. That there is Old Fergus MacKinnon,” Belle said as the girls all looked back at Graham. “Great-grandfather of our friend here.”
“This castle belonged to your family, Mr. MacKinnon?” Hope asked, her eyes widening.
“I had no idea,” Faith said.
“Neither did I,” added Grace.
Graham opened his mouth to explain, but something stopped him. Whether it was shame at the story or the pointed glance Belle was giving him, he did not know, but a part of him wished to stay quiet, if only for a moment to see what Belle had in store for them.
He closed his mouth and shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Lismore Hall never belonged to me.”
“How did you come to live here then, Aunt Belle?” Faith asked as a footman came forward to pull out her seat.
Several other footmen came forward to seat the rest of the party. Faith and Grace observed Belle while Hope kept her eyes on Graham.
“Well, let's just say I had a bout of good luck the day Lismore Hall came into my possession. But that was a lifetime ago,” Lady Belle said as the ladies reached for their napkins, only to have them taken from their hands as the footmen opened them with a flare and placed them on their laps. Graham noted the surprise on the sisters’ faces at being treated so delicately by the staff and he wondered what their life had been like in London. “Long before any of you were born.”
“A lucky day indeed,” Graham said sarcastically.
“Mr. MacKinnon said that you and he have been friends for ten years,” Hope said as a footman came up and ladled potato leek soup into her dish. “Is that true?”
“It is,” Belle said. “Although we weren't great friends in the beginning.”
Graham watched her as she spoke, wondering how far she would go with her story.
“You weren't?” Hope asked, peering at Graham.
“No. As you can imagine, Mr. MacKinnon was quite annoyed with me.”
“Whatever for?” Faith asked.
Belle leaned towards her great-niece.
“Why do you suppose, dear?”
